The Mini-Mental State Examination in the early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease.
The Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), a brief test of cognitive function, has been widely used to screen for dementia. We administered the MMSE to 74 community-dwelling patients meeting criteria for probable Alzheimer's disease (AD) and 74 age- and education-matched controls. Twenty-four patients with AD performed in the nondemented range by scoring above the recommended cutoff point of 23 of a possible 30 on the MMSE. We compared the scores for items of the MMSE in controls and subjects with AD and used logistic regression to model a shorter MMSE that retained the accuracy of the complete test. A score summing tests of recall and orientation for place had similar sensitivity to the full MMSE. Adding a verbal fluency test to the MMSE reduced the error rate by improving the accuracy of diagnosis of patients with AD scoring in the nondemented range.
Galasko
D
D
Department of Neurosciences, University of California, San Diego.
Klauber
M R
MR
Hofstetter
C R
CR
Salmon
D P
DP
Lasker
B
B
Thal
L J
LJ
D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D003071:Cognition; D006801:Humans; D011379:Prognosis; D011581:Psychological Tests / Q000379:methods*; D012044:Regression Analysis